Do not try my man when he's in the locker room before a big race. That's what South Africa's Chad Le Clos did yesterday before the men's 200M butterfly semifinal, and boy did he regret it. Le Clos went through a maybe-warmup, probably-psych-out routine, doing his best Rocky impression five feet in front of Phelps. The American's response was to pull another boxing move, lacing his hoodie up and unleashing one of the most diabolical mean mugs in world history:

NBC + The Olympics

Naturally, this spawned a bunch of equally diabolical memes:

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Tweet Machine user Tom Uebel informs us that this is not the first time these two have gotten feisty in the pre-race phase. Apparently, Le Clos was throwing shade before the men's 100M fly final at the 2015 World Championships:

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.@NBCOlympics Le Clos: "I just did a faster time than @MichaelPhelps has done in 5 years so maybe he should be quiet." Phelps: Lol nah.

Jack HolmesPolitics EditorJack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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